Effective Competition Draft Order Expected To Be Circulated Friday
A draft FCC order that would significantly broaden the number of cable companies exempt from rate regulation is expected to go on circulation Friday, agency officials told us. The effective competition draft order was expected to be shared among eighth-floor offices at the start of the week, but that didn’t happen, commission officials told us. A wave of broadcaster opposition and legislator letters opposing the rule change’s breadth may be connected to the item's not being circulated when it was expected, industry officials said.
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The item had been expected to go on circulation early this week because the Satellite Television and Extension Localism Act Reauthorization (STELAR)-mandated deadline for the FCC to approve a rule to ease the effective competition burden for small cable operators is June 2. The commission’s proposal to extend the relief to all cable “is unlawful and goes well beyond STELAR’s limited directive,” representatives of the major broadcast networks told Chairman Tom Wheeler’s aide Maria Kirby and Media Bureau staff in a meeting last week. The American Cable Association, NCTA and other cable interests have announced their support for the commission's proposal. The FCC declined to comment.
The FCC doesn’t necessarily have to meet the deadline, said NAB Executive Vice President-Strategic Planning Rick Kaplan in an interview Thursday. “The commission misses deadlines all the time,” he said, pointing to the often years-late quadrennial review proceedings as an example.
The draft item is unlikely to have as broad a scope as the original NPRM suggested, Kaplan said. The number of Democratic legislators who opposed the proposal to make it a rebuttable presumption that all cable companies face effective competition should convince the FCC that it shouldn’t move forward with the order, Kaplan said. A cable industry official with knowledge of the proceeding disagreed, saying the draft order is expected to retain the NPRM's scope. Along with the networks and NAB, the National Hispanic Media Coalition and Public Knowledge also have asked the FCC not to pass the broader version of the rule change. The FCC is “going beyond” what Congress intended, NHMC Policy Director Michael Scurato told us.
A brief delay in circulating an item doesn’t necessarily mean the commission is changing its plans, noted a communications industry attorney. Sometimes, a delay means the FCC is making sure an order is appropriately written to handle potential challenges, the lawyer said.